1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates generally to computer systems and, more specifically but not exclusively, relates to providing platform-based optimization routines by firmware of a computer system.
2. Background Information
In a typical PC architecture, the initialization and configuration of the computer system by the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is commonly referred to as the pre-boot phase. It is generally defined as the firmware that runs between the processor reset and the first instruction of the Operating System (OS) loader. At the start of a pre-boot, it is up to the code in the firmware to initialize the system to the point that an operating system loaded off of media, such as a hard disk, can take over. The start of the OS load begins the period commonly referred to as OS runtime. During OS runtime, the firmware acts as an interface between software and hardware components of a computer system. As computer systems have become more sophisticated, the operational environment between the application and OS levels and the hardware level is generally referred to as the firmware or the firmware environment.
Modern operating systems often have access to optimized instruction sets (or routines) for execution on particular pieces of hardware. For example, the Intel Pentium III processor includes an instruction set called SSE (Streaming SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) Extensions). SSE is a set of microprocessor instructions that allow software to call specific processor functions. By using these routines optimized for the Pentium III, operating systems and software applications can maximize the capabilities of the CPU (central processing unit). The optimized instructions reduce the overall number of instructions required to execute a particular program task and as a result can contribute to an overall performance increase of an operating system and/or application.
However, operating system and application code is compiled with specific CPU's in mind and without platform-specific knowledge. For example, software written and compiled for an SSE CPU may not take full advantage of new instructions of an SSE2 CPU. Other hardware components, such as a chipset, may also have optimized routines that cannot be fully anticipated at the time of software production. Additionally, hardware manufacturers are tied to software development to ensure new software can take full advantage of new hardware optimization routines. Often, OS and application release dates lag behind hardware updates and improvements from platform vendors.